Fire in the kitchen...

So in addition to our heat pump failing and the remnants of a typhoon outside there was also a kitchen fire on Sat.

Its surprising how quickly something like a kitchen fire can happen...

I have this awesome electric teapot that my mom bought for me.  It looks like a teapot you would set on the eye of the stove and turn on but you don't...or at least you really, really shouldn't.  This teapot has a base which plugs into the wall and you just flip a switch and it heats up...and the best part...it turns itself off when it is hot! So no annoying whistle blasting through the house when you've become distracted doing something else....

On Sat. we bribed my mom and step-dad to come over for lunch so he could fix our heat pump...it was stormy so of course hot drinks were needed...As we made our first batch of hot drinks, I clearly remember taking the teapot off of the handy dandy base and setting it on the stove top so my mom could use it...then we all settled in the living room...after awhile one of us ( I will not say who) returned to the kitchen to make another cup of coffee.  Naturally seeing the teapot on the eye of the stove he/she just turned the heat on and went back into the living room to wait for the water to heat...

In the mean time I get up to use the bathroom...as I'm finishing up I hear the smoke detector going off...odd I think.  As I head towards the kitchen I notice as I pass the living room that it is empty and there is a significant amount of smoke billowing from the kitchen into the family room...As I enter the kitchen I see three of my family members frantically performing various tasks...opening windows...water was running a smoking melted teapot in one hand...

Apparently when the individual returned to the kitchen to check on the teapot it was engulfed in FLAMES...but thankfully (I'd like to pause here and say I was mildly disappointed that the fire didn't catch on just enough to destroy the cabinets around the stove...I have been wanting to redo that area not to mention there would have been an obvious need to call firemen...) he/she was able to get the fire out as soon as the teapot was removed from the stove...

 What the bottom of the teapot should look like and what it looks like after it has caught fire...

 

We have wanted to redo our stove, oven situation for awhile and last fall had some people come by and give us a quote on the job.  During lunch on Sat. (before the fire) we were discussing all the problems with the kitchen, one of them being that our wooden cabinets are nowhere near code for how high they should be over the stove top...we also discussed the bare wires under the cabinet and the fact that we no longer had a working fire extinguisher in the house...

and then there was a fire...

Its just like when I brag about not having a speeding ticket in a long time...then you get one!

I think I will pick up a fire extinguisher today...

Frychik